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ADDRESS 



OF 



J. 



APTAIN A; S. M 



J 



n 



ON THE 



PRESENTATION 



OF THE 



SOLDIERS' MONUMENT 



TO THE 






CITY OF WOOSTER, OHIO/ 



BY 






MR. AND1MRS. JACOB FR1CK 



MAY 5th, 1892. 



THE ADDRESS. 



I have been appointed by the soldiers to re- 
spond in their behalf to the presentation of this 
generous gift, designed to commemorate their 
achievements by the durable eloquence of sulid 
sranile It would be almost needless forme 
to affirm that they appreciate the 
public spiritedness that prompted the 
gift, and applaud the generosity of the 
donors. I know I express the common seuti- 
ment of every soldier in the County when I ten- 
der to Mr. and Mrs. F.ick our grateful acknowl- 
edgements for their joint iberality in erecting 
this monument, devoted to the preservation of 
patriotic memories, and calculated, at tk«- same 
time, to subserve a laudable public purpose. 
May it ttand through centuries, proof against 
the devastating hand of time, imperishable as 
the martial glory it celebrates, and valuable 
for the opportunity it affords of promoting the 
public comfort. or can I over-look the patient 
toil of our fellow townsmen, Mr. Alcock, the 
sculptor, who laborious chisel, from out of un- 
hewn rock made the granite her leap into the 
proportionate outlines 1 he generosity of the 
citizen, combined with the skill of the artist, 
have established in this public place, a monu- 
ment, signalizing alike pu 1 lie valor in war, 
and privrte munificence in peace. 

In a deadly strugg e, ike the war for the 
union, two fundamental qualities are requisite 
to success, ei' ic patriotism on the part of the 
people, and martial valor on the part of the 
soidieis, The co existence of these two qua i- 
ties defines a vigorous notionality. They can- 
not be dissociated, for the one is the offspr i:g 
of 4 the other Without civic patriotism it would 
be futile 10 expect martial valor on th» battle 
field, for that puesupposes the existence of 
civic patriotism at home. 

The war for the union furnished a most ex- 
alted instance of the subsistence of these two 
capital qualiies in the American people. 

I assert it boldly, that a volunteerarmy of the 
million of men cannot be recruited, organized, 
and disciplined without the virtue of civic pat- 
riotism being deeply rooted in the breast of 
the people who furnish the recruits for such a 
H'.:merous army. Despotism may be able, and 
undoubtedly has been able, at important junc- 
tures, to create a great army by unm xed coer- 
cion: but a free people, deeply im' ued with 
patriotic aspirations, alone can raise, support 
and inspire a voluntetr army, such as save the 
st-irs and stripes on a hundred hotly contested 
battle fields. 

Valor is the common heritage of the Ameri- 
can people It descended to them from a revo- 
lutionary ancestry It is imbibed in the un- 
chalenged freedom ol the republic. It is not 
limited to longitude or latitude. It flourishes 
alike in the rigor of Minnesota and the sun- 
shine of Texas; belongs to Maine and Florida 
without distinction. With such a people, the 
spur of a great danger, like that of 1861. 
wou'd neeesssrily occasion a stupenduous up- 
rising. The volunteer 'ichly deserves unstint 
ed praise or the promptitude of his response . 

But is this all? Do the father and mother who 
devoted the son to the national army deserve 
no praise? 

I recall after the lapse of 30 years, the events 
of that angry ep'sode in our national history. 
I remember it as vividly as if it weie but yes- 
terday. Recalling as I do the emotions it kind- 



led, the headlong passions it aroused, the en- 
thusiasm it evoked, the sacrifices it exacted, I 
am inclii.ied to rate the civic patriotism of the 
parents, who said to the vo unteer soldier go. 
as highlv as the martial valor of that volun- 
teer soldier displayed, as it was through the 
v.cissitu es of that unexampled struggle The 
soldier on the battle field and the loyal citizen 
at home, alike contribu ed to the glory of the 
result 

i propose lo-day to recount the services of the 
loval men and won en who staid at home; who 
mo lded public opinion; who recruited ex 
hausted armies; wh , upheld Abraham Lincoln; 
who absorbed the war loans; who submitted to 
a suspension of the privilege of the writ of 
habeus corpus; who supported a forced legal 
tender currency, who bore appaling taxation 
with ut an ignoble murmur; who met disaster 
with unclouded hope, and victory with rare 
magnanimity; who never cringed befoie he 
draft; who mae the ballot box ring with 
the music of patriotism, strapped a knapsaek 
on every ballot, m< de every poll book and tally 
sheet bristle with bayenets; caused red elo- 
quence to resound from the stump, and the 
wideth-oatof the ele tive franchise to roar 
with the loud engines of war. The patriotic 
men and women or the North, by their incom- 
parable conduct throughout the war. by their 
hope, by their obedience, by their fortitude, by 
their constancy, earned the applause of all 
times, plucked ravished eulogy from un- 
willing lips, and won a crown of immortal 
honor. 

Mo where in the world does public opinion 
command such an absolute supiemacy as in 
the United Ssates. .Presidents, senators, repre- 
sentatives, governors, the courts, the press, 
the pulpit, the bar bow to its decrees with 
ready obedience. Its injunctions ate lis pen- 
dens, and its punishments for contempt are 
swift and irreversable. The a'ional House ot 
Representatives was so fasnioned by the con- 
stitution as to t e accessible to the quickest 
mo. ements of public opinion. Indeed, while 
it has some times been vu nerable to the intem- 
perate caprice of the public will, it has never- 
theless always been solicitous to embody in 
legislation the cherished conviction of the 
massts Thai the National House of Represen- 
tatives, from the beginning to the end of the 
struggle, voted men and money with a lavish 
hand was due to the firm attitude of the p. o- 
ple in support of the war. Had the loyal 
mosses flinched, for a moment, in ihe prosocu- 
tion i >f the struggle, their irresolution would 
have been instantly communicated to Con- 
gress with evil consequences. 

The confederate authorities early felt that, 
in o'der to win success, they must 'heck the 
overwhelming torr nt of public opinion in the 
North, supplant confi fence by distrust, firm- 
ness by irreso.utiou and patriotism by coward- 
ice. They hoped to overawe the war s. ntiment 
in the loyal S ates by winning victory on North- 
ern soil. 

To do this, they venture on dangerous incur- 
sions North of the Patomic. Th j blood that 
was shed at South Mountain and Antitem was 
fruitlessly shed for such an object. It was an- 
swered by the P oeiamation of Emancipation. 
Slavery, which had existed on this continent 
since 1640, was stricken down by the thunder- 






bolt of the war power wielded by the omnipo- 
tent hand of Abraham Lincoln. 

He spoke the aggregate voice of the nation 
in that immortal document of freedom 

Nor did the blondy repulse of Lee from the 
soil of Maryland in September 18(52, cause the 
South to relinquish her mad purpose of muz- 
zling the Northern war sentiment by victory on 
a Northern battle field. The army of 
Northern Virginia again ventured North of the 
Patomic to subjugate the war sentiment of the 
loya States by the capture of Philadelphia, the 
menace to New York Cry, and the jeopardy 
of the Capitol at Washington. They met their 
Waterloo at Gettysburg, and the dripping sides 
of Pickett's slaughtered division announced 
the miscarriage of the enterprise. The wheat 
fields of Pennsylvania were soaked with the 
bravest blood of Virgnia and out of the car- 
nage of little Kound Top and Cemetery Hill 
sprung national hope, instead of national dis- 
may. 

Still the South clung to her purpose of silenc- 
ing Northern war opinion by some terrible 
military blow. While Rosecran was operating 
South of Chattanooga, onquestronable lines of 
s'ra^egy the veterans of Longstreet were sud- 
denly transferred from the East to the South- 
west, thus giving Bragg numerical superioiity, 
and resulting in the bloody, promiscuous, 
chaotic b ttle of Chicamaugua, where the in- 
domitable will of General Thomas rescu d the 
national for es from impending disaster. The 
political fruits of that battle did not match the 
snnguiie expectations of the insurgents. 
Whe'.her the movement of Hood in the Fall of 
1804 when he striped the intrenchments *'f At- 
lanta and hurled his army on the left flank of 
Sherman was designed to accomplish military 
or political re-ults is n> t welt established, 
hut, howev r, this may be, every military ef- 
fort of the South to disloage the war sentiment 
in the North signally failed. The thir y- 
seventh and thirty-eighth congresses respond- 
ed to every demand of the executive govern- 
ment in the prosecution of the war, voted men 
up into the millions, voted money up into the 
billions, because back of congress, back of the 
the army, was the imperial pnrpose of the na- 
tion to subdue by force rebellious violence to 
the union. 

The first drum beat of the war found the na- 
tion defenseless. Its total military forces con- 
sisted of 16 000 regular soldiers, purposly scat- 
ttred to destroy their availibility, with many of 
their principal officers tainted with treason. 
But the ;iugie blast of patriotism called loyal 
men to arms, and by the first of December 1861. 
660.971 vo unteers had been m stered for the 
coLflict. The war like > rdor of the people ex- 
temporized an army with unprecedented dis- 
patch. Nothing surpassed ii in all history. It 
had been accounted a marvel by military writ- 
ers, that the Kmperor Nepoleon was able, after 
hi> des< ent on France from the island of Elba, 
to col ect, between April and June 1S15, an 
army of 414,000 men. France, however, was 
then overrun with the discarded veterans of 
the Consulate and Empire, was full of war ma- 
terial and the war spirit, the growth of 15 years 
of unexampled campaigns But in 1861, while 
it was true <ur fighting material was intact and 
abundant, there were few men m the North 
who could shoulder arms, fix bayonets, or 
right wheel, without exciting derision. By the 
close of the struggle 2,772 408 soldiers swelled 
I the national muster rolls. Omitting double en- 
i listments. not less than 1,500,000 men joined the 
! Union ranks. 'I he patrsotism of the North dis- 
peopled the loyal States to mnke the armies of 



Grant and Sherman and Sheridan what they 
were, the most invincible and numerous volun- 
teer force ever collected under the flag of a 
single nation, 

The loyaltv of the people, however, attained 
its most exalted height in providing financial 
means to carry on the war. Between blood and 
money, it is easier to shed blood than spend 
money. When valor and cash go together, ex- 
pended with indifferent prodigality, you have 
the highest possible exhibition of national 
pluck. To conduct a great war on the specie 
basis, the coffers of the nation ought to be full 
of hard cash. We were not in that situation. 
During the ten years prior to the war $400 000,- 
000 of gold, extracted from the virgin mines of 
California, had gone to Europe to extinguish 
an adverse ba ance of trade against us Our 
coin resources were represented by $1" 00,000,- 
000 held by the banks and the $150 000,000 hoard 
ed by the people. That supply of h*rd cash 
was manilestly too scant to support the gigan- 
tic expenditures of the war. There was one in- 
exorable resource under the Constitution, and 
that was forced loan in the shape of legal 
tender money. That expedient had never be- 
fore been resorted to under the Union. Its 
very existence, as a constitutional power, was 
hotly disput d. But rising to the height 
of the occasion, the people first and 
Congress afterward, deteimiued to venture on 
the experiment. The philosophic mind, now 
looking back at the exegency of the times, is 
bound to conclude, that the most momentous 
measure of war legislation, was the passage of 
the Leaal Tender Act in January 1862. By a 
a legislative edict, then of questionable valid- 
ity, the creditor was desooiled. Every bond, 
note, mortgage, bill of exchange, lease, 
evidence of" debt, payable by the con- 
tract in coin, was made payable in inconvert- 
able paper money. That was radical war legis- 
lation. In spite of the fact, that the suspension 
of specie pavments was assneia ed in i he publij 
mind with panic, distrust, and bankruptcy, 
public opinion vindicated the expediency jf 
the measure The nation pined its faith to the 
greenba-k and it did not pin its faith in vain. 
Born in tne great c mjuncture, cradled in the 
clash of arms, dishonored for a long time 
through overwhelming necessity, three hun- 
dred and forty millions of dol'ars of our war 
currency still live, fruitful of benefit and go d 
as gold wherever the American flag floas, or 
civilized commerce engages the cupidity of 
civilized man. 

Legal tender paper money, while it produced 
an instrumentality of revenue, did not produce 
revenue itself. The financial resources, suffi- 
cient for the occasion, could only come from 
two sources, loans and taxes. Both such 
sources were sounded to their depths. 

Our national credit was disparaged in the 
money centers in Europe. The common peo- 
ple of England were friendiy to our cause; but 
the aristocracy, who owned British go'd, were 
against us. The Rothchilds were hostile The 
money centers or the continent withheld 
assistance The Emperor of the French, re- 
sorting to underhand diplomacy, compassed 
our dismemberment. The banks of New York, 
Philadelphia, and Boston had advanced to the 
government by October 1861. one hundred mil- 
lions of dollars in coin, which was equal to 
their aggregate capital. They could do no 
more. There was but one adequate source of 
supply left and that was the patriotism of the 
people of the North. The appeal was made to 
them with magnificent results. They respond- 
ed in a way that cheered the heart of Abraham 



Lincoln. They absorbed every war loan. The 
seven thirties, the Ave twenties and the ten 
forties, the compound interest notes, every 
species of war loan was welcomed. The bank- 
er, the merchant, the manufacturer the law- 
yer, the doctor, ihe farmer, the whole popula- 
tion, men and women, rich and poor, practiced 
ecouemy to invest their savings in government 
securities Civic pa. rioti-;m was coined into 
war revenue. The government almost from 
the i-tart drew its ample resources from the 
open pockets of the people, a source of supply, 
richer far than the Cornstock Lode, more inex- 
haustible than the precious metals of the Iucas 
of Peru and the Montezumas ot Mexico, which 
fired, but did not satiate, the rapacity of 
Pizarro and Cortes 

V\ hen the war began, the total wealth of the 
^orth. real and chattel, was ten thousand five 
hundred millions of dollais Before it closet 
t:.e total expenditures ot the government and 
people for war purposes was not less than five 
thousand millions of dollars, a sum equal to 
one-half of all our possessions when tne war 
commenced. The magnitude of ttiis expendi- 
ture has no parallel. he nearest npprciaeh to 
it. was tne lavish outlay of Gieat Britian in her 
long struggle to cneck the progress of the 
French Revolut on and to overthrow the power 
or" Napoleon on the continent. Tnese expendi- 
tures amounted in round numbers to four 
thousand millions of dollars, and covered a 
period of twenty-two years. Buttnere is a very- 
marked difference between Great Britian and 
the United States Our war debt, which in 18G> 
reached its maximum of nearly three thousand 
millions of dollars, and which some faithless 
croake s pretended to believe was an insup- 
portable weight on the shoulders of the people 
has been practically wip d out, as our bonded 
debt is now less than six hundred millions of 
dollars. The Briti-h debt, on the other hand, 
which reached its flood tide at Waterloo, has 
been permitted to remain substantially station- 
ary for three-quarters of a century. 

I see men to-day. who know that legal tender 
paper money and war loans were not the only 
burdens the people had to bear Onerous taxes 
were piled upon them. 

Custom dues have always been, and perhaps 
always will be, a favorite source of revenue in 
this country. Twice prior to the war we hr.d 
resorted io direct taxes, ia 18)0 and r&t4, but 
with unsatisfactory results. They have been 
as a rule hateful to the American people. But 
war annuls all re traints, surmounts all ob- 
stacles, hazards all experiments. The custom 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



dutu 
inter 
was i 
durii 
the 
whei 
the ex, 

single fiscal year of the war, would have "ex- 
ceeded all the revenues of the nation during 
the s venty-fourjyears .hat elapsed from the 
adoption of the constitution to the close of the 
administration of James Buchanan, the stoutest 
heart would have quailed before th prospect. 

What I have said during the progress of my 
remarks, may cause misapprehension I do 
not in'end to violate hi toric truth There was 
not entire unamiuity of war sentiment in the 
North. Such mighty interests were at stake, 
such avage passions had been aroused that 
full concurrence of views could not be reason- 
ablely expected. Unhappily, there were men 
born on Northern soil, enjoying the protection 
of the flag, who abused their freedom, by at- 
tempting to thwart the government in the 
prosecution of the war The framers of the 
constitution, with rare forecast, had provided 
agrin^t such evils by lodging with ihe Congress 
power to suspend the privilege of the writ of 
habeus corpus in time of invasion, and rebel- 
lion. The judicious, but unsparing exercise 
of this extraordinary power by Abraham Lin- 
coln was fully sanctioned by the nation, as 
well as justified by the gravity of affairs. 

To fully recapitu'ate all the services of the 
patriotic men and women of the North would 
expand my remarks beyond the just limit fixed 
by the occasion. 

When rec uiting had almost exhausted the 
available volunteer supply they cheerfully up- 
held the draft, They alleviated the hardships 
of the soldiers in many ways. Their organized 
and voluntary charity for once in the history of 
our country abolished poverty by embracing 
within its ample relief the dependeivs of every 
soldier who pulled a trigger for the flag. 

V u may now build an iron clad navy that 
outranks that of Great Britian in tonnage and 
weight of metal; you may draw a line of ba'tle 
ships along your sea coist that will make the 
buoyant waves of the ocean stagger under the 
heavy weight ot floating steei; you may cover 
your harbors with torpedo boa s, loaded to the 
guards with stored des-truetion, but the p'oud- 
e t bulwarks of t^e American Republic, as 
taught by the lessons of 18(51 are the patriotism 
of its people and the vaior oi its soldiers. 



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